


Stranger Among the Living

by kerk_hiraeth



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)
Genre: 'just a girl', Gen, Post-Canon, Stand Alone, being the One Slayer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-10
Updated: 2019-12-10
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:48:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 97
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21735556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kerk_hiraeth/pseuds/kerk_hiraeth
Summary: Being the one Slayer; even when there are many, means time to just pause and remember is very precious.
Kudos: 1





	Stranger Among the Living

**Author's Note:**

> This was the very first thing I posted on livejournal; joining that forum just before new years 2009. It does not fit into any of my various 'verses; not counting ones where Buffy is dead of course, therefore it can fit into them all, including those which follow canon.  
>  So, if you want to imagine Spike & Angel alive or dead; do so and, if you want to imagine Buffy in a relationship with one of them; or both; or neither, then do so. None of them is wrong; nor correct. It does not matter and, after many years of trying to fit this somewhere, I have decided I am happy with that.

Behind her back she's, “ _The Slayer._ ” … and other things they should be too young to understand.

To her face?

“ _Sir,_ ” or “ _General._ ”

In their bunks, in hushed tones, “ _She._ ”

Or, “ _Her._ ”

Why does she always carry a lighter, when she doesn't smoke?

Why, when they run out, does she always head for London?

Nobody knows about the headstone; inscribed with two, improbable, dates; lit by one, eternally aflame; cheap, lighter.

Or why she always brings back a whole case.

Or always returns from Dublin.

Via Galway.

Behind her back it's “ _Bitch._ ”

Never her name.

Never just... “ _Buffy._ ”

**Author's Note:**

> Love must feel like walking a tightrope  
> and beneath the tightrope is the fate  
> of everyone you hold dear. 
> 
> _[A Poem About Buffy Summers](https://thoughtcatalog.com/ari-eastman/2017/07/a-poem-about-buffy-summers/)_


End file.
